Between Good and Evil
by Yukishimo
Summary: [future world fic] The descendent of a legend. The daughter of Ultimecia. The heir of the Godslayer. A world rife with corruption and deceit. Ultimecia was merely a puppet in a grander scheme. Very soon, the messenger in the garden will awake.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** I may own a copy of the game, a copy of the Official Strategy Guide and a couple of action figures, but I don't _own_-own _Final Fantasy VIII_. That happy privilege belongs to Square Enix, Hironobu Sakaguchi and Tetsuya Nomura. All I own in this story are the OCs. And unless I'm involved in some bizarre corporate takeover at some point in the future, this disclaimer will remain in effect for the rest of the story.

**Author's note:** The daughter of Ultimecia may not be a never-before-seen concept, but I always thought she would be an interesting one to write about. It's likely she'd see her mother in a very different light to the one we did. And having seen the happy ending that Squall's time could look forward to, I wanted to explore the world of the future and how it would react to Ultimecia's downfall. So I decided to combine the two plotbunnies and eventually came up with this.

_Prologue: Parting of the Ways___

Peace. Perhaps the most beautiful word of all. Evocative of a midnight sky glimmering with uncounted stars, or of the earth's cool and quiet after a thunderstorm. Or of a garden in the sunset, where lovers walk hand in hand and sit together by a dancing fountain. Perhaps a thousand different scenes, all quiet, all beautiful. Scenes that cannot be in reality, and thus exist only on canvas and hang on the walls of private galleries, where those who have no peace hope to find some, if only for a moment.

Those like me.

If I look at the painting long enough, I can re-envision myself there, with him. We are the lovers in the garden, walking hand in hand and sitting together by the dancing fountain. In my memories I am a girl again, running with my face towards the setting sun, invigorated with the promise of love and hope. I can feel once again the summer warmth on my skin, the playful breeze, the cool spray of the fountain hitting my hand. More than that, however, I can see once again his eyes, dark and soft and wonderful. I can feel the brief, tender touch of his lips on mine. And I can hear his voice whispering in my ear, whispering a hundred vows and sweet nothings.

But that was all they were. Nothing. Empty.

And now even the beauty of the painting cannot mask the poison of his lies. If I look at the painting, I can re-envision myself there, and for a moment I find the peace I sought. But then the memories return and, like dark paint spreading in water, the bad ones blacken the good.

He is dead now. A part of me died with him. The part that remembered how to forgive, how to feel. I did not mourn their loss; how could I, when it was I that destroyed them? They exist now only in a painting hanging in a lonely room, and in the one thing more precious to me than life itself...

"Mother?"

Shocked out of my reverie, I tear my eyes away from the painting of the evening-lit garden. At the first sound of the voice, my powers bristle, preparing for the intruder, but then I realise that it is nothing more than my daughter, standing nervously in the doorway.

_Nothing more than my daughter_...

What a horrid turn of phrase. It makes her sound so base, so unimportant. And that could scarcely be further from the truth. That tiny, guileless creature is my greatest reason for living. My only reason for living. Had it not been for her, I would have drowned in my own resentment and self-pity. But she gave me a reason to continue. She was, after all, still growing within me then. If I died, her life would also be forfeit.

I had thought at that time I would be doing her a favour by bringing her into the world. Now I see I was wrong. The world never accepted her; she was condemned because I was her mother. I was forced to steal her away to this forsaken fortress and hide her from the world outside. That world is but a barren wreck of pestilence and cruelty. For her sake, it is better if she never knows it like I had to.

Bringing myself back to the here and now, I attempt a smile for her. It takes several long moments before she returns it. From the expression on her face, I don't think she recognised me at first. And perhaps that is understandable. I had gone out of my way to make sure that my appearance for my guests tonight would befit an empress. They will fear and revere me soon enough.

"Alynna?" I say. "Why are you here? It is almost midnight."

I listen to myself, rebuking her gently as I did when she was just a child. Looking at her now, she is seventeen years old, passing through the final stages of adolescence, almost an adult woman. Yet how can I see her as anything but my little girl?

She replies softly, "I... I came to wish you goodnight."

I descend the stairs and take her in my arms, feeling the delicacy of her bones beneath my hands. She feels like a daisy chain, too slender and fragile to touch properly in case she breaks. She reminds me of myself when I was her age. She will have better fortune than I, however. I know because I have planned it carefully, down to the tiniest detail.

A heavy weight settles over my heart, knowing that this is to be the last time we meet. Of course, she does not know, nor does she have to. Very soon, this cycle of pain and bitterness will have reached its long overdue end, lost in the vacuum of time and space.

_For you, my daughter._

This world was never meant for something as beautiful as her. Soon, she will be free from the shackles that bind her to this mortal plane. I shall bear the burden of living so she can be free. As soon as I have seen off our guests, my plan will be put into effect.

It took me years to finally master my powers' true potential, but now that I have, I can use it to wipe away all the cruelty and free my daughter, whilst I shall endure the misery of existence alone. To some my plan may sound extreme, evil even, but they obviously never suffered as I did. All I can do now is ensure that my daughter, my only light in a world full of darkness, can never be exposed to the barbarity that I was.

I kiss her lightly on the forehead. Now that the moment of parting is upon us, I find it even harder to let her go. But I must. It is for her, after all, that I do this.

I hold her shoulders and look into her eyes, dark and soft and wonderful. Her father's eyes. It never ceases to amaze me how something as contemptible as he could have caused something so wonderful.

"Mother..."

"Hush." I place a finger over her lips. My voice drops, low and urgent. "Alynna, I am expecting some visitors to the castle tonight. Whatever happens and whatever you may see or hear, you must remain hidden. Put yourself somewhere where they will not find you. Do you understand?"

She looks like she doesn't, but she nods her head nevertheless. "Yes, Mother. But -"

"No 'buts', my darling. Just promise me that whatever happens, you will never let them find you. Promise me that you will never fall into their clutches."

"Mother, what are you -?"

_"Promise me, Alynna_."

She looks taken aback by the sharpness of my voice. It startled me, too. But I need to know. I need her to promise me. Her final duty as my daughter.

Finally she nods again, and her eyes are earnest, if uncomprehending. "Yes, Mother. I promise."


	2. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1: The Quarry_

I stood before the great oak doors, trying to swallow my fear and go inside. But I was just too afraid. Not of the sculpted skulls and gargoyles that leered at me from every angle, but of what I would find inside. Mother hadn't been herself. Not the extravagant dress or make-up so much, but her manner. I had simply come to bid her goodnight as I always did, but she had pulled me into an embrace so tight I was surprised I could still breathe. And that look in her eyes had been so confusing; I had been unable to work out whether she was excited or sad.

She had frightened me with all her talk of visitors and hiding. I didn't know what I could expect behind those doors. But the thought of cowering in my bedroom alone frightened me even more. I needed my mother, regardless of what she was like at the moment.

Steeling myself, I grasped the handle of one of the heavy doors and put all my weight on it. Slowly, the door inched open until I saw - nothing. That is to say, I saw my mother's Master Room with the circle of pillars and the elevated throne. But there was no sign of Mother herself.

I took a couple of tentative steps inside, half-expecting to find her standing in the shadows beneath a pillar. Still nothing.

I was instantly afraid. The Master Room was empty and utterly silent, so why then did the air seem as heavy as a shroud? Why was it not just cold, but clammy? Why could I smell blood? And Mother. _Mother._ Where was she?

Suddenly, the Master Room was filled with white light that for the briefest moment threw everything into sharp relief. A fraction of a second later, it was followed by the clash of thunder. And as the thunder died away, I could hear a new sound. A low growling somewhere between a lion and a swarm of bees. It filled the air outside the Master Room, every second growing louder. _Closer._

I ran from the chamber and back out onto the walkway. The growling filled my ears until I was almost deafened. A heartbeat later, the most immense craft glided past the tower. Built of gleaming metal painted red, it glowed like fire in the grey dawn. For a moment I was utterly perplexed; but my confusion was quickly replaced by terror. For there, emblazoned on the side of the side of the craft was a black-and-white emblem that I had never before seen except in books, but had lived my entire life in fear of.

The emblem of SeeD.

Terror filled my mouth, as strong and bitter as bile, and sucked it dry. Reaching up on tiptoes, I watched as the airship descended, slowly, slowly, past the ruined towers and the broken battlements, making straight towards the bay.

SeeD.

SeeD were here.

My mother had disappeared, and SeeD had arrived at the castle.

I took a step backwards, terrified that I had already been seen. My heart was pounding so violently I felt sick; I could hear the blood roaring in my ears and see black at the edges of my vision.

SeeD. SeeD. _SeeD._

A thousand memories shrieked through my mind at once. My mother, holding me when I cried, kissing my bruises when I fell, telling me that I should fear nothing in this world - except SeeD. SeeD were the wicked hunters who hated us and who wanted to hurt us and who didn't care that I was just a little girl. Mother wasn't scared of anything - except SeeD. They were the monsters that reached out from my nightmares and threatened to pull me into the darkness. Mother feared SeeD like she feared death.

Death. SeeD. SeeD and death. Death and SeeD.

The sky was spinning above me, and I only just managed to clutch at a gargoyle for support. Somewhere over the petrified chattering of my mind I could tell that the engine of the airship had hushed. SeeD had landed on the bay. Outside the castle. The monsters were coming.

_Mother Mother where are you? Help me help me help me HELP ME!_

Had she known this would happen? The guests she had spoken of - were SeeD her visitors? Had she known they were coming? Is that why she told me to hide? Was she hidden, too?

But the Master Room smelled of blood.

And suddenly I knew, even if I didn't understand.

My mother was dead.

I didn't know how or when or even why, but suddenly I knew it as surely as I knew my own name. Mother was dead, I was alone in the castle, and SeeD, the faceless nightmare that had plagued my life since before I could remember, were hammering at the gates.

Somewhere from the depths of my stricken mind, I remembered Mother's last words to me in the art gallery.

_"Just promise me that whatever happens, you will never let them find you."_

This must have been what she meant.

SeeD were at the gates. I couldn't let them find me. Whatever happened.

I had to escape the castle. Jumbled memories of my childhood assailed me. If SeeD found me, they would hurt me; they didn't care that I was just a little girl. Whatever happened, I must never let them find me.

_Run, Alynna. RUN._

Staggering to my feet, I fled back down the walkway towards the ladder. The pounding of my feet was almost as fast and painful as the pounding of my heart. I could imagine SeeDs in their white uniforms filing from their great airship, all armed and all lethal. And all with the one ambition: to destroy me. A group of cats after one tiny, frightened mouse.

I started to climb the ladder, faster than I had ever climbed it before. The rungs were still slick with the rain from last night's storm and my hands twisted more than once. Urgency made my feet clumsy and I slipped, standing either on air or on my hem. Once, I almost fell and my chin hit painfully against a rung. Yet somehow I made it to the top and to the second ladder. Up, up, then stepping over to the still hand of the great clock. It was wet beneath my feet. I found myself praying to any deity that might be there that I wouldn't fall. I clung to any niches and cracks in the stonework that my fingers could find, inching along the clock hands, willing myself not to look down, _don't look down..._

Soon, but not soon enough, I felt my hands touch the edges of a doorway. I clutched at the crumbling stone desperately and pulled myself into the clock tower, away from the clock face and its perilous surface.

But I couldn't even allow myself a moment of relief. SeeD would be spilling into the entrance hall...

The clock tower usually terrified me. The ever-grinding cogs roared like a Behemoth and were so huge and brutal that they could easily mangle any limbs that were trapped between their teeth. Images of that possibility had terrified me ever since my childhood, yet somehow even that fear paled in comparison to that of SeeD, and I found myself cutting swiftly through the room, sliding smoothly through the cogs as if I did it all the time.

And soon I was out, though the grinding from the room behind still churned in my ears. I could imagine SeeD spreading throughout the castle. I needed to find a place to hide before I stood even a chance of escape. And I wouldn't find one in the tower. It was too empty, too obvious, and it was a dead end. The castle had over a hundred rooms, and over a thousand secret crannies and corners. I just had to be quick, and SeeD would never find me.

I fled down the staircase, my feet slipping on makeshift planks or slapping against stone stairs. Down, down into the shadows, and round, circling round and round until I was dizzy with it. I was out of breath; I could feel a sharp pain in my side with every breath I took. Yet I didn't stop once. I couldn't. In my mind's eye I saw the dread agents of SeeD spreading like a miasma through every room in the castle. If I stopped, I wouldn't find a hiding place and I would be found. I had played hide-and-seek as a child; this would be similar, but more dire. Infinitely so.

I reached the bottom of the stairs, the bottom of the clock tower. Not even stopping to catch my breath, I fled outside, into the cold, grey dawn.

Where to go now? A rickety wooden bridge led to the chapel, but that was too direct; I would most likely find SeeD already there or in the courtyard. On the other hand, there was the ladder to my left, and I knew it led even further down to a hidden passageway - but that depended entirely on whether the flood gates were open or not. If they were, then that passage would be submerged. I racked my memory, trying desperately to recall whether or not the fountain in the courtyard had been flowing when I had passed before. Part of me thought it had, yet another part insisted it hadn't.

With every second I wasted hesitating, SeeD were drawing ever closer.

I couldn't run across the bridge; I couldn't go to the chapel. I would all but run into them if I did. The only option left open to me was to climb down the ladder and pray that the flood gates were closed.

There was no rain down there, but mist gathered in the hollows of the stonework and clung in tiny droplets to the ladder. Learning from my near-fall just minutes before, I lowered myself carefully down each rung. There was less distance to fall, but the stone would be just as unforgiving. But I was going too slow.

_Not fast enough, can't go faster, hurry, can't..._

Where would SeeD be now? Would they have reached the courtyard yet? If they were, and the flood gates were open...

I reached the bottom, onto the stone plinth above the waterway. Glancing down through the mist, my heart jumped with relief when I saw that the flood gates were indeed closed; the only water below me was in the scattered puddles left by the dammed water. The passageway was open. I could escape this way.

Crouching down, I twisted round and cautiously let myself off the plinth. My fingers caught the edge and I hung there for a moment before I allowed myself to drop. I landed on my feet in a puddle of cold water that instantly seeped through my shoes.

I glanced around, trying to decide what my next course of action would be. There was a gate that led to the courtyard - dangerous, too dangerous. The way that was quicker for me would also be quicker for them. On the other hand, taking the waterway route would force me to take a long detour through the castle, with perhaps just as much chance of running into SeeD.

_Hurry, Alynna, decide, no time!_

The gate to the courtyard was open. My heart plummeted like a stone into my stomach. It opened into a relatively concealed passage, but what if SeeD found it?

I ran to the gate, and tried desperately to push it back into place. I couldn't be followed, I couldn't be found. But it wouldn't budge. The only way to open or close it was through the organ in the chapel - a trick of Mother's designed to deter intruders, and one that was now rebounding upon me.

Nevertheless, I tried to shut the gate, digging my feet into the ground and putting my whole weight against the wooden slats. My hands burned and splinters embedded themselves under my skin; sweat broke on my brow; anxiety pressed down in my chest. I was almost weeping with effort and desperation.

_Move!_ I begged the gate silently. _Please, MOVE._

And then I heard it. And the fear I felt was like falling from an unthinkable height.

Voices. Footsteps. In the courtyard.

_SeeD._

I had wasted precious moments in vain.

I had no choice now. I had to run.

I fled back along the waterway, my footsteps echoing against the high walls that pressed around me. They sounded so loud, _too_ loud. Far too loud. SeeD would hear them, and would come after me. The gate was open. I was aware of it with every foot I ran from it. I could imagine terrible SeeD warriors stepping through it even now, coming into the waterway, seeing me...

_Run, Alynna, don't look back._

It was madness, but I believed that if I did look back, SeeD would come through the gate. If I looked back, they'd know where I was.

A wall reared up in front of me. I had no idea where I was now; I had never been down here before in my life. All I knew about the passageway was that it was here. The only escape route I could see was a grille at the foot of the wall. As soon as I saw it, I rushed to it, tugging at the bars with all my strength. But it was firmly built into the stone.

I felt like I had just died inside. I looked over my shoulder, certain I would see SeeD pursuing me down the waterway.

And then I saw it. Half-hidden in the shadows was a wooden door. My salvation.

I threw myself at it, hopeful, yet at the same time dreading that it would be locked. But the door opened almost as soon as my hand touched it and I stumbled into the shadows beyond.

I screamed.

Someone was already there.

They sat opposite me, crouched in the shadows, looking straight at me, one hand outstretched.

_SeeD!_

I backed against the doorway. Tears sprang into my eyes and streamed down my face. I shook my head, whimpering, "No, no, _no_..."

_I failed. They found me. No! Mother, no! I failed!_

A cloud must have moved in the sky, for a shaft of pale dawn light lanced through the grille in the ceiling. Moisture trickled down stone walls, bare save for the manacles that hung from metal rings. The flagstone floor had been perfunctorily scattered with straw. And the SeeD - it was not a SeeD at all. Just a corpse. The remains of some poor prisoner left to hunch beneath a fraying cloak.

I wanted to cry with pity, but at the same time I could feel my gorge rising. The flesh that remained on the skull was scrappy and a foul grey-green. The lips had rotted away long ago, leaving a mouth of teeth that seemed elongated and much too large for it. The same mouth grinned balefully at me, conspiring with everything else in the castle to remind me of the fate I would suffer at SeeD's hands.

I was in the dungeons. My heart sank once again. Along with the waterway, the dungeons were the only place in the castle I had never explored. I had never dared. Mother's servants had once brought in prisoners every day and thrown them into these dark cells. Even from my chamber, tucked comfortably away in one of the wings of the castle that was still standing, I had fancied I could hear their screams. None of them had ever left.

Mother had sent most of her servants away not long ago. How I wished that one remained to guide me through the dark bowels of the castle. If SeeD didn't kill me, I would probably get lost in these myriad passages and starve.

_Stop thinking. Run. Find a way out._

Leaving the poor corpse behind, I hurried to the second door on the other side of the dungeon, trying desperately to ignore the scuttling noises I heard from the shadows around me. Praying that this door, too, was unlocked, I opened it.

I found myself in a room that - _at last!_ - I recognised. The flood gate room. I knew my way to the front hall from here - but it meant crossing a whole wing of the castle, with every certainty that SeeD would be there already.

I was almost too scared to go any further.

I leaned back against the door, trying to decide whether I would be safer risking a run through the rest of the castle, or whether there was any place for me to hide here. Nothing: only a low bench pushed into one corner, and it would be poor cover if SeeD did come in.

_Somewhere else._

On the other hand, the door opposite led into the armoury.

_The armoury!_

I tore across the flood gate room, jumping across the empty channel in the floor, and ran to the armoury door. Mother usually made her servants lock it, but some benign deity seemed to have picked all the locks in the castle for me. The door swung open immediately.

I was sure Mother had placed one of her guardians in the armoury, but it was empty. The flickering torches revealed only the suits of armour, displayed with militaristic discipline on every side - and on the many chests of weapons and weapon parts.

I dived for the nearest one, rummaging through the unsorted jumble of axe heads, sword hilts and shield bosses, hoping to find something with which to defend myself should SeeD find me after all.

Nothing.

I moved to the next one, and pulled out a sword encased in a worn leather scabbard. Quickly, I belted it around my waist. I had never held a weapon in my life, nor did I have the first idea how to use one, but nevertheless it felt reassuring to have some form of protection just within hand's reach.

I left the armoury, if not less scared, then at the very least less helpless. But as soon as I had stepped back into the flood gate room, I heard a sound that made my blood run colder than the heart of the Guardian Force Shiva.

They were in the dungeon.

At least two of them.

_Why didn't I lock the deadbolt?_

I almost ran back to the prison door to do just that, but I only just stopped myself. They would get to the door before I did.

My only option was to flee.

I ran from the room, just as I heard the shriek of rusting hinges swinging. I took the stairs three at a time; a muscle stretched in the back of my thigh and I only just choked back a cry of pain. At the top of the stairs the first thing I saw was another door. Not even remembering where it led and not even caring, I ran through it.

The art gallery. Normally I could spend hours in here -

_No time no time no time_

I crossed the room without even glancing at the paintings, my eyes only on the door at the other end.

_Just another room, just one more staircase, then I'm in the grand hall._

Then I heard a noise beyond the door. Footsteps. Heavy, determined footsteps.

If my voice hadn't fallen into my stomach with my heart, I would have screamed.

I skidded to a halt, then whipped round, ready to run back. But then I remembered.

There were SeeDs that way.

There were SeeDs both ways.

Trapped.

_Trapped!_

I turned round, tossing my head fearfully like a cornered horse, my eyes darting wildly around the room for some hope of concealment. If I could have hidden in the garden in the large painting next to me, I would have.

The door before me was opening.

There was only one place I could hide - and not for long.

As I flung myself behind the stairs leading to the gallery above, the door opened fully and I heard somebody walk in. The door closed again. There was a dreadful finality in the way it boomed shut that made my body go icy-cold. The slow, heavy fall of booted feet echoed against the bare stone floor and around the cold walls. My spine tingled with fear.

I drew my legs up and wrapped my arms around them, hoping against all hope and wishing against all wishes that if I could just make myself as small as possible, I would become invisible.

_Please please please..._

_Stalk. Stalk. Stalk._

The sound of those pacing footsteps was a drumbeat of doom.

Swivelling my head as much as I could bear, I peered through the narrow slats between the stairs.

One.

One white-uniformed demon. Prowling. One predator. Hunting.

He stood at the foot of the stairs, looking around with narrowed eyes, around him then up, sweeping along the length of the gallery. I lowered my head away from the gap between the stairs, barely stifling a gasp as I did so.

_Stalk. Stalk. Stalk. Stalk._

I could feel the floor vibrating beneath those heavy boots. I drew myself up even smaller.

_Stalk._

He stopped.

Bile rose in my throat. He was standing near the other door. If he turned round, if he took another few steps in the direction of the _Inandantia_painting...

This time, my prayers went to every deity and every Guardian Force that I had ever heard of. I prayed to disappear, for the SeeD to leave without looking, for me to melt into the shadows I crouched in.

My insides clenched. My heart was pounding in my throat, so fast I felt sick, so loud the SeeD would surely hear it in a moment. Why couldn't he hear it already? It was louder than his footfall...

I wasn't breathing. I must have been holding the same breath for at least a minute. I could feel my chest burning. But I couldn't let it out now. But my lungs were screaming. I covered my mouth with my hand, though my throat and chest felt tight and sore and I was starting to feel dizzy.

The door opened and without another glance around him, the SeeD left the art gallery. The door closed behind him.

Only then did I dare breathe out; in the utter silence it sounded like the roar of an Aero spell.

For a moment, I could only sit there, hunched beneath the staircase, as still as if I had been petrified. I didn't even dare believe my luck.

I could hear the SeeD outside the gallery, in the antechamber that led either to the flood gate room or to the rest of the castle. I could hear him speaking, even if I couldn't make out any words. Speaking to the SeeDs who had been behind me in the flood gate room?

The exchange was brief, and I tensed again in the shadows, waiting for him return, this time with reinforcements. But moments passed, and nothing happened. They had gone.

I crawled out from beneath the stairs, took a second to stretch my poor, clenched muscles, then padded silently across the gallery. I had just miraculously evaded capture and saw no reason to make any noise now.

Somewhere amidst the dark cloud of my fear, a tiny spark of hope sprang into life.

Breathing heavily, flushed by my narrow escape, I took the door handle, opened the door and stepped outside - _straight into someone_.

I fell backwards, hitting my elbows against the stone floor. Before I could stop it, I had uttered a sharp cry. My eyes flew upwards.

_A SeeD!_

A man in an immaculate white uniform, dark hair held back from his face by a white headband. In his right hand he grasped a rifle. He stared down at me, obviously as taken aback as I was.

"What the hell...?"

Then everything happened at one. I screamed loudly, a split second before he descended upon me. I screamed again - the damage had been done - and threw my hand up in defence. I had only the vaguest impression of dark eyes and a snarling mouth before the SeeD stumbled backwards, one hand clutching his face. I jumped to my feet and ran.

I bounded up the stairs, tripping up them almost, barely watching where I was putting my feet. I heard the SeeD recover and come chasing after me, all the time shouting, shouting loudly, though I heard no words, no words I could make out.

I fled along the gallery, grasping the banister beside me and using it to thrust myself forward faster. My momentum carried me straight out the open door at the end and onto to the second gallery that overlooked the main hall. I threw my hands out and grasped the balustrade. Raising my head, I saw two SeeDs standing guard just at the main doors. They were looking up. They had seen me, too.

Not even stopping to despair, I ran back to the door I had just come through; I had a fleeting glimpse of the pursuing SeeD lunging himself towards me, but I pulled the door shut and held it as best I could. On the other side, my pursuer was pounding his fists against it and trying to wrench it open. He was stronger than I was, and even I knew it was only a matter of time before my own strength gave way.

_I have to escape._

Leaving the door, I tore along the gallery, cutting round the corner so sharply I was almost too soon, and streaked down the grand staircase. The SeeDs from the door surged forward to meet me at the bottom. Hands snatched at me from all sides, curses rang in my ears like thunderclaps, but with an agility I could never imagine having if I hadn't been so desperate, I evaded them all. All I knew was the main doorway; one of the great double-doors was ajar; I could be _free_.

I burst from the castle and down the front stairs as if I had all the winds of Pandemona at my heels. Before me one of the great chains that bound my mother's fortress to the earth stretched downwards. It swayed in the wind, the massive links groaning as they pushed against each other.

Taking a deep breath, I took a step onto the first link. The metal was rough and weathered and I was able to keep a firm foothold. But when I looked down and saw the unforgiving grey sea crashing countless feet below me, my resolve wavered, as did my whole body, and the blood seemed to drain from my head.

The SeeDs were out of the castle now and were halfway down the stairs. Their threats and curses reached me even where I stood.

I had no time to be afraid now. Within seconds I was half-stepping, half-jumping from one link to the next, making my way down towards the cape. But it seemed as distant as the moon and further away with every step I took in its direction. Behind me, I was aware of the first SeeD jumping onto the chain. Panic incited urgency, and I forced myself to go faster, despite the grim fall and dark waves yawning beneath me, desperate to catch me if I so much as wavered.

Halfway down, I saw another of my mother's creations, and my heart was beside itself with fear and relief. There, suspended in the air by means I could only guess at, were Mother's three portals. Three mystical pathways framed by white columns. I remembered her telling me once how they were intended for her servants, but also how they each transported one many miles away from the castle in a matter of seconds.

_Escape._

I stopped before the portals. The SeeDs were close behind me. I didn't even have time to decide on a portal. I simply jumped, disregarding the sheer drop and the cruel sea so far below me, and let myself land at the nearest doorway. My arms flailed wildly and I very nearly overbalanced backwards, but at the last second I managed to clutch at the pillars on either side of me. I looked back, but my pursuers were lost in the bright white glare emanating from the doorway. I looked forward, shielding my eyes against the blinding light and, without a second thought but with a hundred anxieties, I stepped into the portal.

**Author's note:** Whew! That took longer than I thought it would! Who'da thought that escaping from Ultimecia Castle would've taken - (checks) - _nine_ pages? It must've been that "Mother" stuff every five minutes. Don't worry, folks, Alynna's not a remnant of Sephiroth in disguise. At least, I don't _think _she is... (shifty eyes)

Anyway, how did you find that? I was trying to make it suspenseful, if not scary, but I think all I succeeded in was making it wordy. And with barely a word of dialogue, too (more shifty eyes).

I'd really appreciate feedback, as fanfic is as much writing practice for me as it is a pastime, and I'm constantly looking for ways to improve.

Till next time!


	3. Chapter 2

**Author's note:** God, it's been a month since my last update. Where've the weeks all gone, eh?

For those of you who actually care, I can explain. The new sixth year timetable started on the fifth of June, and I had intended to get this chapter tidied up and uploaded after the dust settled. Turns out the dust didn't settle until the summer holidays; ie, now. And since I'm all hyped up after tonight's episode of _Doctor Who _(Cybermen _and_ Daleks! Eeek!) and have more Irn-Bru in my system than is probably healthy, I decided, hey, why not?

So, reviewers and shadow readers, mein Damen und Herren, without further ado, I give you the next exciting (cough) chapter of _Between Good and Evil_. Let's see where Alynna's ended up...

-

_Chapter 2: Lost_

I was met by the harsh white glare of sunlight. Dazzled, I threw my hands up in front of my face. The wind that had been roaring inside the portal died away as I emerged, but I felt as dizzy as if someone had just picked me up and spun me around roughly. Nausea was strong and sickly at the back of my throat. It had sprung on me the instant I'd stepped inside. All I had seen in there was a confusion of shadows and swirling clouds. My head was spinning and my blood sounded like the ocean in my ears.

I never wanted to enter a portal again.

I had only the vaguest glimpse of a blue sky and high cliffs before the ground came rushing up to meet me. I threw my hands out to break my fall, but I couldn't prevent myself from sprawling face-first in the long grass.

I wasn't sure how long I lay there, with my hands outstretched needlessly and my nostrils filled with the smell of earth. I just waited. For the spinning to stop, for the sickness to subside, for my body to become my own again. And, gradually, it did. The spinning slowly died into a vague dizziness, then it was gone altogether. The nausea rose and fell erratically for a few minutes, and I was terrified I really was going to be sick, but then eventually that, too, managed to settle.

I lay there for a few minutes more, eyes closed, face pressed to the earth, the grass tickling my face. Only when I was reasonably sure that I wouldn't just topple over again did I even attempt to stand up. And even then I did it slowly. I stood still for a few moments, waiting, expecting to fall again, but my head was clear and my legs felt relatively stable once more.

Smoothing down my dress and adjusting the sword at my hip, I took a look about my surroundings, wondering as to where the portal had taken me. Two lines of sheer cliffs reared up on either side of me like outstretched arms, rising into mountains that almost had me encircled. Before me, the ground undulated away from the mountains, a never-ending expanse of long grass rippling in the wind. And beyond that...

Well, beyond that was the rest of the world. A world I had never really seen but had learned to fear and abhor.

A world I was now going to have to learn to survive in.

Alone.

That was when reality came caving on me again.

I remembered that my mother was dead. In my terror I had... not exactly forgotten my grief, but rather let my fear push it to the back of my mind. Now that I was away from the castle, it lanced through my heart with a cold and merciless force. A dreadful clamour started up inside me, a horrible churning of loneliness and emptiness, disbelief and despair. My body went numb. My very mind went numb.

The nausea returned, and this time I was sick. I retched into the grass at the same time I started sobbing - horrible, dry sobs that almost made me choke on the stomach acid I was retching up. Tears streamed down my face and my insides convulsed violently.

When it was over my whole body was shaking and my skin tingled hot and cold at once. The tears remained, however. Perhaps I was even crying more now. My gaze was fractured with tears. I couldn't see a thing. I raised my shaking hands to my mouth but was unable to keep in the long, shuddering wail that was fighting to get out. I could do nothing but allow myself to cry.

If I had cried anywhere near this much before in my life, I certainly couldn't remember it. My whole body was wracked by sobs, loud, desperate ones that shook my chest and hurt my head. They sounded more like screams than sobs, really. Tears streamed down my face in what I can only describe as torrents. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was amazed at how much I could actually cry. Though I was constantly wiping the back of my hand, or my wrists, or my palms across my eyes and cheeks, the tears kept coming and my hands just grew damper.

I really did have no idea how long I sat and wept for. Time just became something in the background, where seconds were indistinguishable from minutes and minutes indistinguishable from hours. For all I knew, I could have been sitting there and crying for a month. I certainly felt capable of doing so.

After a time, I had no idea how long, I finally managed to swallow back my last sob and draw my hand across my last tear. My head hurt again, but my heart hurt even more. I remembered reading once that it was good for you to cry, that the chemicals in tears flushed out all the toxins that accumulated when you were miserable. So why then did I feel no better? Why did I feel just as empty, just as _lost_ as I had before I had started crying?

It just didn't seem real. Nothing did any more. A world without my mother was altogether too frightening, too dangerous. Not only was I going to have to learn to survive in this new world, I was going to have to do it without any guidance or any guarantee of safety. I felt like I was standing on a small rock in the middle of a grey, heaving ocean, and that sooner or later the waves would rise up and submerge me completely. Already they were lapping around my ankles. I could only wait for them to cover my head. I was trapped, and utterly alone. So alone I felt hopeless. After all, Mother was the only friend and mentor I had ever known. She was my only confidante, and I hers. Loneliness yawned darkly within me, loneliness and terror. Not the sharp, urgent terror I had felt when running from SeeD, but a duller, emptier one. One that echoed with far more despair; one that much, much more frightening.

When I thought about SeeD again, my mind immediately flashed back to the portal. I had entered it easily; who was to say that SeeD wouldn't be able to do the same? They hadn't been that far behind me. Surely they should have come through by now?

With that alarming thought, I jumped to my feet and spun around, expecting to see the three SeeDs emerging from the portal. What I saw, however, was that the entrance to the gateway was no longer shining and had suddenly turned dull and grey. It also looked strangely... solid.

Puzzled, I reached out one hand gingerly and touched my fingertips to the entrance. They came into contact with something hard and cold. It felt almost like stone, as if someone had covered the portal with a stone slab whilst my back had been turned.

For a few moments I wondered why that should have happened, but with the sudden rush of relief that danced through me, I found that it hardly mattered. Whether it was some sort of fault, or whether Mother had designed the portals to serve as an escape route as well as a servants' door, I didn't know and, for the moment, at least, didn't care. I had been given a head start.

I turned from the now-sealed gateway, staring out across the vast stretch of grassland before me. My mother had given me a chance, a chance to escape and survive. It would be foolish and almost... selfish of me not to take it.

Ultimecia Castle was behind me. There was no going back. Leaving the portal behind me, I started walking.

-

The sun was high in the sky, almost at its zenith, and I no longer felt as resolute as I had when I had started off. When I had walked through the portal I had emerged into the early morning, perhaps just an hour or so after sunrise. Now it was late morning and the day had grown hotter. Uncomfortably so. My dress wasn't exactly heavy or thick, but nevertheless it still stuck to my back and clung to my legs. My skin felt warm and damp, and my scalp was beginning to itch beneath my hair. I felt flushed and tired; my breath came in short gasps, even though I had not broken into a run once.

To make matters worse, I realised too late that the soft kid leather boots I wore had been designed solely for wearing indoors, and not for long treks across rugged land. They provided very little support, and every time I trod on a stone or somesuch, I could feel it jab into my sole as if I had been walking barefoot. And I couldn't be sure, but I had begun to think there was already a hole in one of the shoes.

And I just couldn't stop thinking about my mother. Every time my thoughts turned to her, I felt my throat close over and my eyes sting as a fresh wave of tears came. It was just impossible to believe that she was no more, that I would never again see or speak to her, never again be able to feel her comforting embrace. I was in a dream world; my body walked in the real one, but my mind and being were trapped in the shadows where reality and my nightmares flowed into each other and became indistinguishable.

Really, it was lucky I was only ever walking in one direction: my concentration was scattered to the four winds and I could barely see through my tears. The sun may have been shining brightly, but a day had never seemed darker. The heat was oppressive, and the land and sky together just looked too vast, too empty.

_Why did you die?_ I asked her silently. _Why did you die and leave me alone in this world - the world you always told me was evil? Why did you DIE?_

I gasped and stopped dead in my tracks; then the tears came all over again. I was so terribly ashamed of myself. I was angry at Mother for dying. I shouldn't be angry at her. It wasn't her fault. I had no right to be angry with her.

I was terrified that she still existed somewhere, in some afterlife, some enchanted dream of Heaven that I had imagined when I was younger, all cloudy spires and angelic hosts. I was terrified that she was there, trying to find some measure of peace at last, but had felt my anger, my silly, selfish anger, and now hated me for it. Or maybe it made her sad, and she was crying as much as I was now because she believed _I_ hated _her_.

"Oh, Mother, I don't hate you." I didn't even realise I was speaking aloud at first. Maybe I hoped that by speaking my words aloud they would be carried up to Heaven and she would hear them. "I don't hate you. I love you so much, Mother. Mother, _please_. Please believe me, please hear me. I don't hate you... I don't... I don't... I..."

My words withered away into a fresh stream of sobs.

-

By midday I was leaving the arms of the mountain range and the land was beginning to descend. That is to say, there were still hillocks and ditches, but on the whole I could feel my steps taking me down a gentle slope. The foothills of the mountains, I supposed. And before me, in the distance, a deep-blue strip of ocean glittered between the horizon and the sky. Between that strip and I the land was wide and empty. I hadn't seen any signs of habitation ever since leaving Ultimecia Castle at dawn, for which I was glad; but at the same time it puzzled me. Surely by now I should have come across something?

I stopped at the crest of the next hillock. Despite the light breeze that danced inland from the sea, my skin still felt uncomfortably hot and damp. I held out one arm, noticing the bright pink smears on the skin.

I really hadn't left the castle prepared for a journey at all, and the thought that there was no way I could have been able to foresee what was going to happen was little consolation. At this rate, my boots were going to fall apart and my skin was going to scorch right off. I could feel my cheeks growing hotter every time I wiped the perspiration from them.

_Where do I go now?_ I wondered, looking out towards the ocean. Then, _Where_ can _I go now?_

Just a few miles before me, the land ended at the sea cliffs. To my right I could see that the sea swung inland until it disappeared behind the arms of the mountains. I looked down disconsolately at my soft boots. Mountains were out.

If I could have known where the portal was going to take me, I might have been able to use what knowledge of geography I had to work out a destination. But with no settlements, no signs and no roads, I literally didn't know where in the world I was. As it was, the only way I really could go was to my left, where the grassland continued to stretch away into the distance until it disappeared into a haze of heat.

I cast one look behind me. I was actually surprised at how far I had walked. The mountains looked low and hazy in the distance, and I couldn't even see the portal any more. I wondered just how far I'd come. It was definitely more than a mile, of that I was certain - but how many exactly? With the oppressive sun beating down on me, my skin sticky with sweat and stones pressing into my feet with every second step, it had seemed about a hundred, but I had the feeling it was not even a fraction of that.

I wondered how many miles I would have to walk until I found somewhere safe. From the stories Mother had told me, it was likely that I would be walking forever.

So, with nothing behind me and nothing but uncertainty before me, I started walking again.

I hadn't gone very far at all, perhaps only a hundred paces or so, before I heard a noise behind me. A strange rustle, as if something was chasing through the long grass behind me. The entire morning had been so silent that this sudden baffling sound had me spinning around at once.

I saw nothing.

I looked out across the area immediately behind me, trying to spot anything that might be hiding behind the long grass. Nothing was, but that did nothing to calm me. It felt as if there _had_ been something just behind me - and not seeing it was much worse than seeing it.

I frowned, not at all satisfied with what my eyes were telling me, but nevertheless, I turned away.

_Just my imagination_, I thought uneasily. It had been so quiet, and I had been so fearful, that my mind must have just made up a noise because it had expected one. I had once read a book in the castle library on illusions and the tricks the mind was capable of playing.

Something seized my leg.

With a cry, I pitched forward, but barely a split second later, I was jerked back sharply. I threw out my hands to grab something, but clutched only grass and pebbles. I kicked my legs, trying desperately to dislodge myself from my assailant, but the grip around my ankle only tightened until it was painful. Then, with a sudden sickening sweep in my belly, I felt myself being flung upwards before landing on my back. Pain shrieked its way up my spine and stars burst behind my closed eyelids. But panic took over my brain and made me jump to my feet almost instantly. Barely was I upright, however, than something struck my body with a sure and heavy force, and I was sent sprawling into the grass again. I lay there, dazed, but a shadow suddenly blocked out the sun above me and I had to roll to one side to avoid it. I cried out as my back ached in protest and a stone dug sharply into my side. At the same time, however, I heard whatever it had been slam into the ground where I had been, sending a shower of pebbles and dirt over me.

Staggering heavily to my feet, I spun around to face my attacker - and screamed.

Protruding from the ground before me was one of the most horrific things I had ever seen. A shapeless, skull-like head, utterly bare of flesh but corded with sinew, peeked out from the grass. A pair of small, yellow eyes glared out at me from dark sockets that seemed much too large for them. Before the head, a pair of gigantic hands almost as tall as I was had thrust their way out of the ground, their huge, bony fingers flexing dangerously.

I knew instantly what it was, though I had only ever seen it before in pictures.

_A Vysage!_

The left hand suddenly pointed in my direction. Before I realised what was happening, there was a white flash above me, and a bolt of jagged lightning streaked down from the sky and struck me. With a scream I fell to the ground, writhing uncontrollably under the full force of a Thunder spell. Purest agony rushed along my nerves in the form of electricity. My limbs jerked ceaselessly; sparks exploded before my eyes; white-hot pain surged in my head.

It was a miracle I even managed to find the strength to clamber to my feet. My mind was still reeling in pain. Maybe that was why I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing as my still-twitching hands fumbled for the hilt of my sword. I clutched, twisted and pulled, but the sword wouldn't dislodge. Dismay flashed through me as sharply as the Thunder spell. I shook the hilt and gave it another sharp pull. But I pulled too sharply, and my arm was at too awkward an angle. A bolt of pain shot up my arm. The blade fell to the ground as I clutched my aching wrist.

Too late, I realised I had belted the sword to the wrong side - to my right when it should have been my left.

Ducking down quickly, I retrieved the blade. At the same time, I felt a sudden rush of air, and looked up in time to see one of the giant hands descending upon me. I screamed, and in a moment of blind terror, I raised the sword above my head. My sore wrist burned in pain again and, in consternation, I realised that despite the thinness and seeming-fragility of the blade, it was much heavier than it looked. So it was probably my strength failing me more than anything else that brought it sweeping down.

I missed. Or rather, I might as well have missed it, for all the good I did. The flat of the blade glanced against the right hand, but snatched away immediately as my strike carried me forwards. I uttered a sharp noise of despair, but turned around again at once. I swung the blade as the hand twisted and grabbed at me again.

It was a clumsy blow, more like a hack with a wooodaxe than anything else, but it drove home, into the space between the thumb and index finger. There was no blood, but I must have harmed the hand at least a little, as it balled into a tight fist and receded.

I didn't even stop to celebrate or be shocked, but started running.

I didn't get far, though, as I tripped on the hem of my dress and stumbled, just as the other hand moved. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of another Thunder spell, I tried to dodge to one side, but my bothersome hem got under my feet again and, before I knew it, I had hit the ground once more.

That was when the head struck.

Its mean little eyes flashed and its jaws opened wide as if it was trying to speak. At once, my eyes started watering and a low, dull ache - as if from a migraine - started up behind them. I drew my hand quickly across my eyes to clear my vision, but although I managed to wipe away the tears, everything remained clouded. Lines and shadows which had just a second ago been clear and definite suddenly blurred and swam into each other. Black rippled at the edges of what remained of my vision, then encroached upon the rest of it. Before I was able to really grasp what had happened, I could see absolutely nothing, stumbling about in utter darkness.

A Blind spell.

Now I really was panicking. My hand groped desperately on the ground for my sword, but no matter how many times I blinked and rubbed my fist over my eyes, I just couldn't see anything, and every time my fingers closed over only grass, anxiety mounted in my chest, harder and heavier, until I couldn't even breathe properly.

I heard a low growl from somewhere, felt the ominous rush of air as one of the hands slapped out at me again, then was hit once more by another Thunder spell. My head was buzzing and my body was in acute agony as I fell face-first to the ground once more. I threw out my hands to break the fall - and hit something cold and metallic.

From somewhere at the back of my agonised mind, I dimly recognised it as the hilt of a sword - something I needed. I seized it. Lifting it, and myself, I swung it blindly. The blade drove into the grass. I pulled at it, desperate to get it free, but one of the hands must have hit me again because I felt a stinging, bruising pain on one side and I hit the ground yet again.

This time, I couldn't get up.

My mind had shut down to everything but the pain. Pain crackling through my veins; pain up and down my left-hand side; pain in my jaw; pain in my wrist; pain at the back of my thigh; pain in my back. White-hot, branded on my brain like a torturer's iron, burning in every nerve and every joint. I had never, not once, in my life been in such complete agony. Every other thought, every other sensation, had been completely obliterated. All I could do was curl up in the grass and sob and scream.

I felt a dimly familiar rush of air above me. What did it mean? Something bad. I couldn't remember. I couldn't _think_. I was going to die. The pain was atrocious. I was going to die.

_I'm so sore... please, please... I'm just... so sore..._

The rush of air ceased abruptly. I heard the sound of clashing steel. I looked up, surprised even through my agony, but still couldn't see anything. The air was full of turbulence. Footsteps running through grass. Groans and hisses. A loud report. A whole hideous cacophony.

It was too much. I needed to escape. _Escape_. I tried to struggle to my feet, but the world suddenly gave a shuddering lurch beneath me, and my terror and pain conspired together to rip away all consciousness.

-

"Oh! Look, Caleb, I think she just stirred!"

Something prodding my hip.

"Let her alone, Jiff. Poor lamb needs her rest."

Footsteps. A door closing.

Silence, but for the sound of breathing.

"Pretty kid, ain't she?"

Broken silence.

A pause.

"...S'pose. Looks a bit ill, though. Bit yellowish. Bit flushed, too. Looks like she caught the sun."

Another silence.

"What was she doin' away out at the edge?"

"Dunno. Found her bein' set on by a monster."

"Vysage, was it?"

"Yeah."

Vysage? That sounded familiar. Two people were talking: a woman and a man. Talking about a Vysage?

_Familiar_...

Feeling horribly groggy, I realised that I was lying down on what felt like a bed. Not a very comfortable one, though; the mattress beneath me felt hard and lumpy... why should it feel lumpy?

I cracked open one eyelid. Two pairs of eyes swam in and out of sight.

"Look, Caleb! She's awake!"

A blurred face leaned in towards me.

"Hey there, chicobo. You feelin' okay?"

I wanted to answer no, that I was sore, sore all over - but as soon as my mouth opened, a horrific clamouring started up in my head and all feeling went out of my limbs. The face dimmed before me and I slipped into blackness once more.

When I awoke again, just a few seconds later, it seemed, I could feel an arm wrapped firmly around my shoulders. In a strange juxtaposition, my brow and cheeks were being patted gently with something cool, and a soft voice was crooning in my ear:

"There, there, sweetheart. Just you take it easy. Give yourself all the time y'need." A pause. More patting. "There. Good lamb."

"M-Mother?" I whispered.

Somewhere in the fog at the back of my head, something told me that there was something wrong with saying that, something badly wrong; but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why, and trying just seemed like too much of an effort at the moment.

I heard a soft chuckle. "'Fraid not, pet." The dabs at my face and neck ceased. "Now, you able to see anything yet?"

I had no idea what she was talking about.

"I... I don't... I... what?"

"You open your eyes for me, yeah?"

I didn't know why I had to, why it was so important, but I complied nevertheless. It took a strange sort of effort, as my eyelids felt unbearably heavy, but eventually they opened to varying depths of shadow. Everything was blurred at first, and I felt a strange, dull roll of terror from somewhere, but eventually my sight returned and settled on a faded patchwork coverlet that had been thrown over my legs. I glanced up, and realised that I was sitting up on a narrow bed in a low, timbered room with a sloping ceiling and unpainted walls. It was sparsely furnished, and the only light came in from the windows and from the lamp on the bedside table.

The arm was still around my shoulders. Turning my head, I finally saw the speaker I had mistaken for my mother. It was a tall, sharp-faced woman without a spare ounce of fat on her body, greying hair held out of her eyes by a faded blue cloth. A small smile lifted the corners of her mouth.

"Can you see okay?"

I nodded slowly, trying to work out where I was. I didn't recognise the room at all, nor did I have any idea how I could have come to be there. I was positive that I hadn't been there before I'd closed my eyes. But if I hadn't been there, where _had_ I been? I didn't recognise the woman who held me, and nor did I even have the feeling that I should.

"You okay, love?" she asked.

"I..." I struggled to find the right words. "I... don't really know..."

"Got any feeling in your hands and feet?"

Hesitantly, I moved my feet from side to side and flexed my fingers. She seemed satisfied with that.

"Good goin', good goin'. Now you just take it easy, y'hear?"

I nodded, bewildered. I didn't have the slightest clue what she was talking about. But I didn't complain, either. Somebody was grinding down rocks in my head, and I could barely hold onto a single coherent thought. They just kept slipping away like water through my fingers. All I had to hold onto were vague impressions, the shadows of emotions and sensations: grief, sickness, pain - and fear, always fear. But I had no idea why I should even think of them.

"Where...?" Why was it such a struggle to speak? "Where am I?"

"Safe."

A strange sort of relief washed over me. "Good..." The word left my mouth in an almost lethargic sigh.

I leaned back into the cool pillows, hoping that something could alleviate the awful, throbbing pain in my head, or at least tell me where I was so I could stop thinking about it. My thoughts just kept running in circles. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't remember how I had got here, or even where I had been before that.

Beside me, I heard the chink of china against glass and opened my eyes to see the woman filling a beaker with water from a jug next to me. She pressed it into my hand gently.

"Drink up," she said softly. "You look like you could use it."

I took the glass and sipped. I hadn't realised how thirsty I was until I felt the water soothe my throat. It suddenly felt unbearably dry and rough. I drank the water down quickly, too quickly, and splashed half of it down my front. I barely noticed until I had finished, then I was embarrassed. I could feel my face growing hot, and I barely managed to look at the woman from under my eyelids.

She laughed, but not unkindly. "Feelin' any better now?"

I didn't know, so I stayed silent.

There was a pause, then she spoke again. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Alynna." I didn't even stop to be cautious.

She smiled. "Pretty name. Suits you, so it does."

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to say to that, so I said the only thing I could say: "Thank you."

She laughed again. "Ain't you the polite one?" She offered me a dry hand, and I shook it hesitantly.

"What's your name?" I asked, out of courtesy.

"Oh, my name's Meryl." She gave me a lopsided smile. "Not as pretty as yours, eh, Alynna, but it goes, don't it?"

"I like it," I said truthfully.

Meryl smiled and patted my head affectionately. "You're a sweet kid." She drew back and gave me an appraising look. "A sweet kid that could do with a change of clothes, a wash and some bandages, though."

I looked at her blankly. She didn't seem to notice, however, as she continued to regard me almost critically.

"I'll go get you some clean things from my room," she said eventually. "You, meanwhile, get yerself over to the bathroom - it's right opposite on the hall - and get washed up. You look like you've been takin' tumbles all over the place."

She guided me out of the bedroom by one arm and ushered me through the door opposite. I found myself standing in a tiny, chilly bathroom, furnished only with an old-fashioned toilet, a small tin tub pushed into one corner, a chipped sink on one wall and a cracked mirror hanging above that.

Wondering what Meryl had meant when she had said I'd needed a wash and some bandages, I made my way over to the mirror and peered at my reflection. I soon saw exactly what she had meant. My hair was tangled and caked with dirt, and my cheeks were smeared with mud and blood. But even that couldn't conceal the large, dark bruises on my jaw and neck. In fact, my entire left arm was dark with bruising, the black-and-purple discolouration livid against my skin. Looking down at my hands, I saw that my fingers were bruised, the nails chipped and darkened with dirt, and that my palms were bloody and filthy. To make make matters worse, I could feel a dull twinge in my right wrist every time I moved it. Dismayed at the state of my reflection, I looked down at myself. The hem of my dress was muddied and fraying, and my boots were battered almost to pieces.

Meryl was wrong. I didn't look like I had been taking tumbles all over the place. I looked as if I had been dropped from some incredible height into a pool of mud.

Then I remembered the Vysage, the pitiful fight I had put up, the Thunder spells, the slaps and strikes, the Blind spell...

When I looked at my reflection again, I saw that the area around my eyes was still pink and swollen. A half-remembered conversation from earlier floated through my mind, the conversation between Meryl and the man she had called Caleb. I recalled what Caleb had said about my looking ill. "Yellowish", he had called me. And he hadn't been exaggerating. Where my skin wasn't purple from bruises or red from sunburn, it was a sickly sallow colour.

Bluntly put, I looked terrible.

I reached out my trembling hands for a cloth, ran it under the single tap and gave my face a vigorous scrub. The dirt and dried blood came off easily enough, but the bruises and the sallowness remained. The bruises I could understand - I had taken a severe and literal beating in that encounter with the Vysage - but I just couldn't understand the sallowness. I couldn't remember ever seeing myself such an unwholesome colour before.

I washed myself all over, relishing the cool of the cloth against my burnt and sore skin, wiping all the grime and sweat away. When that was done, I bent my head over the sink and rinsed my hair as thoroughly as I could, combing through it with my fingers. As I towelled my skin dry, I realised that I felt at least a little better for the wash, though I wished fervently I could have done more for all the bruises, and for the dull ache that rolled rhythmically across through my temples.

I heard a knock at the door. Opening it, I found Meryl standing in the hallway with some faded garments slung over her arms. She gave me a grim smile.

"I take it you've already seen yourself."

I nodded mutely.

"Quite a sight, ain't it? You've sure been through the wars, my pet." She handed me the clothes. "Now, you get these on and I'll look out something for those bruises you've got. Then you can get downstairs, yeah? Dinner's on, and I reckon you could do with somethin' decent in yer tummy."

Goodness, I couldn't even remember the last time I had eaten.

I attempted a smile, though that was the last thing on earth I felt like doing. "All right. Thank you. I'll be down as soon as possible."

She grinned back. "Good girl." She gave me a half-amused, half-critical look. "I think we'll need to get second helpings down you. I've seen stringbeans with more paddin' than you."

-

A little while later, I was making my way down a narrow and rickety flight of stairs, holding the hem of my borrowed skirt above my ankles. The day's events had left me with a new-found distrust of long skirts and dresses. I resolved to do something to my dress when Meryl had washed it and given it back; take up that bothersome hem, most likely.

The clothes I was wearing now were Meryl's, a white, long-sleeved blouse and a faded patterned skirt cinched in at the waist with a wide leather belt. They were much too big for me and I felt very swamped indeed, but they were clean and comfortable, so I didn't see much reason to complain.

The stairs took me down into a long room that spanned the entire ground floor. What furniture there was had been placed to separate the entire floor into three separate areas: one, a living area with an aged settee and a battered old television set; the second, a dining area with a table and a collection of mismatched chairs seated around it; the third, a kitchen area taken up by a large cooking range, a stone sink and a small wooden cupboard.

There were several people milling about in each area. I saw Meryl and a young boy busy at work in the kitchen area; a girl about my age laying cutlery on the table in the dining area; a man with a short, white beard and a youth who seemed to be somewhere in his early twenties at the door, talking to a handful of men in well-worn overalls and mud-caked boots. Nobody really noticed me as I came downstairs, for which I was glad, and I took the opportunity to slip unnoticed over to the kitchen area.

As I approached, Meryl looked up from the pot she was stirring in and gave me a smile.

"Ah! Good timin', love; soup's nearly ready."

I watched the young boy as he rummaged in the cupboard, feeling uncomfortable for standing doing nothing.

"Do you need any help?"

Meryl shook her head. "Jiff's gettin' the bowls and Colleen's already settin' the table. Just you relax, Alynna. You're our guest here."

I smiled awkwardly. "Yes... well... I don't really know where here is."

Meryl gave me a surprised look. "Come again, chicobo?"

"I'm not really sure where I am," I repeated.

"Did you get lost or somethin' today?" she asked, ladling soup out into one bowl.

I was taken aback. I didn't know what to say. I had never expected Meryl to ask me that, and now I was dismayed. I was loath to tell her the truth, but at the same time, I was loath to lie to her, especially after all her kindness.

_What do I say?_ I thought desperately. _What do I do?_

Meryl must have seen my hesitation and interpreted it for something else, for she chuckled lightly.

"Nothin' to be ashamed of, y'hear? We've had plenty kids out here before who've gotten lost. Kids from the city, usually, off on some grand day out. That what happened to you, Alynna?"

Before I knew what I was doing, I was nodding my head. "Yes." I felt my skin flush at the lie even as I spoke it.

"Thought so." There was a smile in her voice. As she filled another bowl she said to me, "You're at the Wilburn Hill Power Farm, the main source of electricity for all the desert settlements. My man, Caleb, he's the manager. Has been for thirty years," she added proudly. In a quieter voice she continued, "It was him what rescued you from that Vysage today. Lucky for you he was on his routine land survey - he does that every few days, y'know, to make sure all the equipment's working and that there's no monsters lurking around. Right away out at the edge, you were too, almost at the mountains. Another few miles and you'd have been a goner."

"Oh." There was really nothing I could say to that. I thought I should feel relieved that I had been within the perimeter of the Power Farm, but instead a dark chasm of fear opened up in my chest as I imagined what might have happened had that Vysage caught up with me earlier in the day. I shuddered and tried to shake the possibilities from my head.

I made myself focus instead on the name Meryl had given me: Wilburn Hill. I knew enough geography to know that Wilburn Hill was in eastern Galbadia, just at the edge of the desert. That meant that Northern City, formerly Deling City, the capital of the Galbadia continent, lay to the northwest. I felt considerably more comfortable knowing where I was now. It was a significant improvement to the disorientation and confusion I had felt that morning when I'd had no idea where I was.

Now I could work out my next destination. I just needed to figure out which way would take me the furthest away from SeeD.

-

Dinner was extremely companionable. In fact, I don't think I had ever eaten in such a congenial atmosphere. Meryl and her family seemed to talk about anything and everything that crossed their minds. Meryl introduced me to them all. The man with the white beard was her husband Caleb. The boy who had been in the kitchen area with her was their youngest, Jiff. The girl I had seen was their daughter, Colleen, and the young man I had seen earlier with Caleb was their eldest, Daren. The men they had been talking to, as I found out from listening, were hired hands who worked for Caleb on the Power Farm.

I was anxious in case someone started asking me searching questions, but Meryl seemed satisfied with what she thought she knew. I was ostensibly a girl from the city who had been out for the day and got lost. It sounded terribly implausible to me, but Caleb believed it. From what he told me, it sounded as if it wasn't all that uncommon to have groups of young people from the cities going out into the remotest parts of the country for fun and subsequently getting into trouble.

"You ain't the first city-kid I've had to rescue from the monsters, and I'll be damn surprised if you're the last," he told me.

Really, my dilemma over being truthful or lying was solved for me, as Meryl and Caleb seemed to have made up their minds about me as soon as they'd seen me, and had made up my story for me. I didn't really have to invent anything at all; all I really had to do was nod and say "yes" from time to time.

Nevertheless, I still felt a deep pang of shame every time I did so. These people were being so kind to me, so hospitable, and I was repaying that kindness with falsehoods. I felt worse than awful.

_But would you rather tell them the truth and be turned out of the house, or worse, turned in to SeeD?_ a voice whispered in the back of my mind. I shuddered and went back to my soup.

After dinner, I insisted on helping the family wash up the bowls and cutlery and clear them away. I figured that if I had to lie through my teeth to them, I could at least pay them back honestly in some small way. Truth be told, I had never washed dishes in my life, and I was terrified that I would slip up somehow and arouse suspicion, but I never did. And Meryl was so grateful for my help that I wanted to cry in shame.

With everything cleared away and with the sun sinking behind the hills to the far west, Caleb, Colleen, Jiff and Daren squeezed up on the single settee to watch the television, whilst Meryl looked out a first-aid kit for my injuries. A Potion was enough to assuage the worst of my bruises and back pain, and she gave me a bandage to support my wrist. It wasn't broken or even sprained, as I had feared, but after taking a close look at it, Meryl told me that I had twisted it badly enough for it to be a bit of a problem over the next few days.

"Just rest it tonight and we'll see how it is in the mornin'."

That done, we went to join the rest of the family in the living area. I had never actually seen a television in my life, let alone watched one, and I was almost fascinated by the way it seemed to be such a natural part of this family's life.

"What's on?" Meryl asked as we approached.

"News," Caleb said. "Some power surge in Esthar caused an explosion; a cave-in in the Gaulg Mountain mines and -"

He was suddenly interrupted by an exclamation from the television screen. The newsreader was looking down at the monitor in front of him with an expression of pure shock. His gaze flickered from side to side as if he was reading something rapidly. He was silent for a moment, then he looked up towards the camera, with the look of one who was unsure whether he was awake or dreaming.

"_Th-this just in_," he said, and I was sure that the tremor in his voice was nothing to do with bad reception. "_Literally. Just in. We have just this minute received a message from the outlaw faction SeeD, stating that Sorceress Ultimecia, ruler of the world, is dead._"

There was silence in the living area, a stunned, shocked silence. Meryl and Caleb and their children all looked at each other in utter disbelief. Mouths opened, worked noiselessly, then shut again. Eyes stared, blinked, turned towards the television, then stared again. No one seemed able to talk until Caleb finally repeated one, tremulous word:

"D-dead...?"

Meryl was close behind him. "Ultimecia?"

Had I imagined it, or had I heard a note of repressed hope in her voice? Was I imagining it, or could I see the shadow of repressed hope on all their faces?

"You don't think SeeD managed to get into the castle at last, d'you?" Daren whispered. "After all these years..."

"A hoax," Colleen insisted, shaking her head. "It's a hoax. I... I can't believe it..."

Meryl and Caleb looked at each other seriously, though, like the first delicate ray of light that breaks through a storm cloud, I could see that hope struggling to reach the surface of their faces. I could only watch them, perplexed. I didn't understand. I didn't understand anything. Why hope? Why did they look... almost happy?

"It's over, then," Caleb said, and there was no sorrow in his voice, only immense relief, as if he had just laid aside a terrible burden after carrying it for many miles.

"What if they're lyin', Dad?" Colleen whispered.

But Meryl was shaking her head. "Why would they? Why would they choose now, of all times, to lie? No. No, I think... I think they're tellin' the truth. I think, after all these years, someone's finally managed to send that devil woman back to where she came from..."

I heard nothing after that. I could see Caleb and Meryl and the others all talking together rapidly, but I couldn't hear them over the noise of the blood roaring in my ears. I saw their faces, saw that light, the light of hope and happiness desperate to break through and shine on them.

They were _rejoicing_. They were rejoicing that Mother was dead. And I could only watch them, shocked into silence, wanting but unable to scream at them, "That's my mother! _My mother!_"

Oh, God.

Mother.

_Mother_.

For the first time since waking up, my mind truly returned to her. Something heavy and hideous slammed into me as I realised that my ordeal with the Vysage must have pushed all of that morning's events to the very, very back of my mind.

And they returned with a vengeance.

I remembered seeing Mother for the last time in the art gallery, that terrible moment when I had realised she was dead, running for my life through the castle, my grief when I had left the portal. Everything, every sight, every thought, every feeling, came crashing down on my head like the sky caving in on me.

_That's my mother! My mother!_

My mother...

"Alynna!" Meryl's voice suddenly cut across my paralysed mind, sharp and concerned. "Alynna, you've gone white as a sheet! What's wrong?"

Only then did I realise that my hands had clenched into two tight fists at my side. My eyes were stinging. The world was swaying beneath my feet. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think.

"Alyn -!"

Meryl's voice was lost as I crumpled to the floor and dissolved into tears.

-

**Author's note (again):** Heheheh... the dreaded linking chapter. Wasn't this the most boring thing ever? Bear with me, folks, I'm trying to build up some characterisation and world exploration here, and I promise that Chapter Three will have some action. Oh yeah, and the plot will actually make a fashionably late appearance. And who knows? Maybe Alynna'll be able to stay on her feet for longer than five minutes.

Fingers crossed.


End file.
